DA CEASEFIRE
EFF LEADER Julius Malema uncharacteristically went to ground yesterday regarding the DA’s controversial decision to keep its former leader Helen Zille as Western Cape premier.
Zille’s defiant behaviour on defending colonialism had damaged the opposition party and threatened both its growth, prospect at the 2019 elections and coalition governments in Gauteng metros.
Yesterday the DA top brass announced a compromise deal between Zille and party leader Mmusi Maimane, which saw the disciplinary charges against her dropped.
Zille also confirmed yesterday that she had been approached to form a new political formation if she were fired.
The ceasefire deal has emboldened her supporters in the Western Cape and put the EFF in a tight corner.
Last week, Malema threatened to withdraw support for the DA in the City of Johannesburg and Tshwane if the party did not oust Zille. The fiery leader said the DA was acting like the ANC in that it defended an individual over the country.
But when contacted yesterday, Malema referred questions to party spokeperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, who did not repeat the threats by Malema to dump the DA in metros.
“It is important to put on record that the EFF is not in any alliance or coalition with the DA; we have no relationship with them, none whatsoever. We do not owe them anything in the same way we do not owe anything to the ANC gangsters,” he said.
“Our faith lies in a future without both in government, which can happen in 2019,” he added.
The DA yesterday sought to mitigate the damage Zille was causing to the party by getting her to apologise for her tweets while retaining her as a premier, a move that has made her backers happy.
DA Western Cape leader Bonginkosi Madikizela, a close Zille ally, said retaining her as premier was the best decision for the party.
“It is the best compromise we could have reached. I want to applaud the leader for minimising damage and encouraging unity within the party,” he said.
Madikizela said those unhappy with the decision to keep Zille as the Western Cape government leader are not their voters.
Flanked by Maimane, Zille apologised unreservedly for her March tweet. She was removed from her positions in the Federal Executive (FedEx), Federal Council and Provincial Council, but would remain in the party’s caucus in the Western Cape legislature. Zille said she was sorry for her remarks and for undermining Maimane.
“In a sensitively race-divided society it is just true that who you are determines how what you say is taken. For example, if a Jew makes an anti-Semitic remark, everybody laughs, but it doesn’t work the other way round.”
Maimane said the party was not willing to buckle under pressure from the EFF.
“When we take such actions, I don’t get involved in EFF processes.”
I COULD not agree more with LP Lolliot’s letter in The Mercury on June 13, “Maimane has bit the hand that fed him”.
I too have lost all respect for the DA for the unthinking, hasty and incompetent way it has handled the recent Helen Zille saga. Even the most moronic ANC supporter must realise that, despite all its faults, colonialism did leave behind cerinvestigate tain benefits which the ANC, and the rest of the country, continue to enjoy to this day.
This is all Zille was saying in her tweet but the political spin doctors in the ANC took this molehill and turned it into a mountain which Maimane swallowed lock, stock and barrel thus precipitating his hasty and unnecessary action against Zille.
I will no longer support the DA and they can add a further two lost votes to the growing disillusionment with the way they have handled this issue. BRIAN SHORT Somerset Park